300 Ugandan youths stranded on road in Tanzania after Pan-African trip

More than 300 Ugandan youths who travelled to Tanzania for a Pan-African pilgrimage have been left stranded after organisers ran out of money for fuel and other expenses.

The group travelled under the Twende Zetu Butiama Pilgrimage Safari, an initiative organised to celebrate the lives of the founding fathers of the East African countries.

Share Joy International, a Ugandan non-governmental organisation mobilized the Ugandan delegates who embarked on the 3-week trip.

Brian Muhumuza, the executive director of Share Joy Uganda, said the delegation is now stuck at a university in Tanzania with no clear means of returning home.

“We are over 300 Ugandan delegates who came to celebrate Nyerere Day as part of the Pan-African dream that is spearheaded by the President of Uganda. But to our shock, we have not received any funding. When we were coming, we slept on the road as the vehicles broke down and ran out of fuel,” he said.

Muhumuza said organisers had attempted to reach State House Uganda for assistance but had not received help.

He said their vehicles were now parked at a Tanzanian university without fuel.

“Girls are sleeping one block and boys in another block, but the university semester is commencing soon and students will be reporting back. We have nowhere to go,” he said.

Muhumuza also revealed that efforts to reach Uganda’s embassy had failed.

The Ugandan government and its diplomatic mission in Tanzania had not responded to the claims at the time of the organisers’ appeal.

Muhumuza said some members of the delegation had started finding their own way towards Uganda.

“Some of the team members have resorted to riding bodabodas back to the Ugandan border, but some do not have money and they were entrusted to us by their parents,” he said.

According to Muhumuza, parents paid $100 for each participant after organisers were assured that other expenses would be covered by the Ugandan government.

He also questioned whether the delegation’s earlier visit to Akokoro, the birthplace of former president Milton Obote, had played a role in the difficulties.

“We are now wondering if we are being ignored because we went to Akokoro. Are they punishing us for this?” he asked.

The Twende Zetu Butiama Pilgrimage Safari was planned as a journey through East Africa to honour leaders associated with the region’s Pan-African and independence history.

The trip was scheduled to run from October 1 to October 23, 2026.

Participants from East African countries travelled from Dar es Salaam before gathering at Makerere University in Kampala on October 4, where Ugandan delegates joined them.

They visited Parliament on October 5 before travelling to Murchison Falls National Park and Akokoro on October 6.

The group later attended Uganda’s Independence Day celebrations in Kampala on October 9 before leaving for Butiama, the birthplace of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, on October 10.

They took part in Nyerere Day activities on October 14.

The delegation had planned to continue to Bondo in Siaya, Kenya, on October 15 to visit sites associated with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Raila Odinga.

The programme also included a visit to the burial site of Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta before ending in Eldoret around Kenya’s Mashujaa Day commemorations.

The journey has, however, stalled in Tanzania, with organisers now appealing for assistance to return the Ugandan delegation home.